{"id":7704,"date":"2014-09-29T03:42:20","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T08:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?p=7704"},"modified":"2014-09-29T00:58:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T05:58:12","slug":"i-miss-my-dad-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?p=7704","title":{"rendered":"I Miss My Dad Tonight."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When a parent passes it&#8217;s natural to think about them from time to time. Tonight was one of those times.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/follow?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fcommotioninthepews.com%2F&amp;screen_name=joecourtemanche&amp;tw_p=followbutton&amp;variant=2.0\">Please follow me on Twitter<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/josephcourtemancheauthor\">&#8220;Like&#8221; the Facebook author page<\/a>. Don&#8217;t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits!<\/p>\n<p>I drove home from a writer&#8217;s conference in Saint Louis today. Got home at the stroke of midnight and I looked like I&#8217;d been crying. Probably because I&#8217;d shed a few tears when this video, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=X75sVw0xH2c\" target=\"_blank\">Letters From Home<\/a>, came on my stereo in the trusty <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kbb.com\/ford\/explorer\/2004-ford-explorer\/\" target=\"_blank\">Explorer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X75sVw0xH2c?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>My dad passed 5 years ago. He never saw a finished book, not so much as a congratulatory email from a fan of the blog, and certainly never a cover to a novel. And I&#8217;m missing him tonight because that&#8217;s so close and  I won&#8217;t be able to share it with him on this earth.<\/p>\n<p>My dad was a man of many accomplishments. I&#8217;m pretty sure he had goals for me that I never met. I know he loved me, and I loved him. But there was never that moment where I knew he was 100% proud of something I did. A lot of that was his nature: he was not the effusive type. <\/p>\n<p>Now, with a great conference behind me, a bright future ahead of me, and sequels, prequels, and other books all in the process, I think my dad would be busting his buttons over what &#8220;his kid&#8221; had done with his life. You can&#8217;t live your life for your parents, but when they take joy in your accomplishments it sweetens it for all.<\/p>\n<p>Mom, I know you&#8217;re proud. And I love you more than you can ever know. I tease you and joke with you, but I love you and respect your opinion. <\/p>\n<p>Dad, if God posts this on the board up there, I hope you can smile and say, &#8220;That&#8217;s my son. I knew he&#8217;d make it.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Guess I&#8217;ll find out soon enough. But I miss him tonight because I&#8217;d love to hear his voice when I tell him all the great things going on in my life. I miss that voice more and more as the years go by.<\/p>\n<p>Parents: don&#8217;t wait to tell your kids you&#8217;re proud. Do it the moment you are starting to smile. Because that&#8217;s when they need it most. And you won&#8217;t always be there to write letters from home.<\/p>\n<p>Good night, Dad. I&#8217;ll talk to you in a minute in my dreams. Lots to go over tonight and I&#8217;m hoping for some insights.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When a parent passes it&#8217;s natural to think about them from time to time. Tonight was one of those times. Please follow me on Twitter, and &#8220;Like&#8221; the Facebook author page. Don&#8217;t forget to subscribe (the box is on the <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?p=7704\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1253,1,7],"tags":[2542,167,660,829,162,3859,3860,4491,1185],"class_list":["post-7704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love-2","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-assault-on-saint-agnes","tag-commotion-in-the-pews","tag-ford-explorer","tag-heaven","tag-joseph-courtemanche","tag-letters-from-home","tag-proud","tag-video","tag-youtube-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7704"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7706,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7704\/revisions\/7706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}